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Book .V\\^ 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

OF ^. 

HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH 

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 



AT 



FORT WAYNE, INDIANA 



OCTOBER 11, 1865. 



POET WAYNE 
1865. 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 



A-DDRESS 



OF 



HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH 



SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, \ 



AT 



FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, 



OCTOBER 11, 1805 



FOET WAYNE 
1865. 






Weet. BeSi Htel. Soa 



A.DDRESS. 



Accept, Mr. President, and you, gentlemen, my sincere thanks for 
i the honor you have done me in inviting me to this entertainment, 
^ and for the sentiment to which you have responded. From the day 
\ I entered Fort Wayne — a stranger in a strange hxnd — I have been 
\ treated by its citizens with a kindness and consideration altogether 

s 

\ beyond my merits, and for which I shall ever be grateful. But no 
!; trust that has ever been reposed in me, and no kindness of which I 
^ have been the recipient, has touched my heart so sensibly as this 
\ demonstration of your resj^ect. I lack the language to cxj)ress 
<; to you, Mr. President, and to you, gentlemen, my obligations for 
this evidence of your personal regard, and this testimonial of 3'our 
appreciation of the manner in which I am discharging the duties of 
the very important position to which I was last spring unexpectedly 
called. I can only return to you my sincere thanks, and pledge to 
you my best efforts so to perform my official duties as to reflect no 
discredit upon my friends in Fort Wayne, whose good ojiinion I so 
highly value. ISTcxt to my desire to acquire and leave behind mo a 
reputation that my children may not be ashamed of, has been my 
desire so to perform the duties that may be devolved upon me that my 
friends in Indiana, those with whom I have been connected by social 
and business ties, would have no occasion to blush for me, or regret 
the endorsement they have given me. 

No place will ever be so dear to me as Fort ^Yayne5 no friendships < 

s 

will ever be so strong as those which I have formed here. I am, you > 

know, one of the pioneers of this beautiful city. When I crossed the 

St. Mary's, swimming my horse by the side of a canoe, on the 23d of \ 

June, 1833, Fort Wayne was a hamlet, containing a few hundred \ 
souls, an Indian trading post, a mere dot of civilization in the heart 
of a magnificent wilderness. Under my own eye, as it were, it has 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

become a city of nearly twenty thousand people, a city full of vigor 
and enterprise, the second city of the State. I am proud of Fort ] 
Wayne, and of the noble State of Indiana — a State which has been < 
second to no State in the Union in her devotion to the Government, < 
and in the gallantry with which her sons have defended it. I am ) 
thankful that when I crossed the mountains, in common parlance, \ 
"to seek my fortune," my feet were directed to Indiana, and especially ^ 
to this place. Wherever duty may call me hereafter, this will ever < 
be to me my home. Many of my kindred sleep in our beautiful \ 
cemetery, and there, I trust, will be my resting-j)lace when I am \ 
called upon to join the great company of the departed. I 

But Fort Wayne has other attractions to me. The friends of my i 
early manhood are here. It is true that thirty years have spared but I 
few of those who took me by the hand and bade me welcome to the \ 
new country; but a number remain, and some are present on this \ 
occasion. I do not know how it may be with others, but for myself ] 
I can truly say that, as one after another of that pioneer band passes ^ 
away, my attachment to those that remain grows stronger and < 
stronger; and I am inclined to the opinion that the attachments and 
friendships which are formed on the frontier, where those who are 
^ seeking new homes at a distance from their old ones, are thrown 
> together in a common society in which all are equals, and where the 
\ the circumstances in which they are placed, and the very cravings of 

< their natures open their hearts to each other with confidence and 
k trust, are stronger and deeper rooted than those which are formed in 
\ older and more populous communities. J3ut whatever may be the 
\ cause, the fact exists, that Fort Wayne is dearer to me than any other 

< place in the w^orld, and that there are no friends to whom I am so 
i deeply attached as to those whose familiar faces seem cordially to 
} greet me when I return to it. . _'. . '. 

I Mr, President, since I paid my last visit to Fort Wayne, a little 
s less than a year ago, great events have transpired in the United 
I States. The rebellion, although it had received many staggering 
\ blows from our gallant soldiers, under the distinguished generals 
\ whose fame is world-wide, was then still audacious and defiant; and. 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTUllE, 

although the result might not have been considered doubtful, the end 
of the war seemed not unlikely to be far in the future. Eleven months 
have passed away, and this great civil war has been brought to a 
glorious conclusion. The Stars and Stripes are again recognized as 
the emblem of Liberty and Union in every part of our national do- \ 
main, and more than eight hundred thousand loyal men have been ^ 
mustered out of service, and converted from gallant soldiers into 
peaceable, law-abiding, and industrious citizens. The question of I 
State sovereignty has been settled by an appeal to arms, and the I 
sovereignty of the Government under the Constitution established <, 
forever. The greatest civil war that has ever been waged upon the \ 
face of the earth has been concluded; the most powerful armies of \ 
modern times have been disbanded; and yet civil liberty is as safe 
and vigorous as it was before the war commenced. During the pro- \ 
gress of the rebellion there has been a strain upon republican institu- | 
tions, but they have sustained it without the loss of a particle of their I 
strength. State rights and individual rights may in some instances ^ 
perhaps unnecessarily have been invaded; but to-day there is at the i 
North no State right under the Constitution, and no individual right, \ 
which is not as much respected and as well established as when the first 
gun was fired upon Sumter. It is this fact which makes our triumph 
a more sublime and greater triumph than the result of the war itself. 
But this is not all. Just at the moment when the people were 
rejoicing over the fall of Eichmond and the surrender of the 
Confederate armies, the Chief Magistrate of the nation, the most 
beloved and most trusted of men, fell by the hand of an assassin. For 
a moment the nation was struck dumb by the atrocity of the act, and 
the magnitude of the loss that had been sustained. As the report 
flashed over the wires that the beloved Chief Magistrate of the nation, 
in the midst of rejoicings over our victory and the prospect of return- 
ing peace, had been slain, what heart was there throughout this 
broad land which was not filled with anguish and apprehension? — 
what thinking man did not put to himself the questions. Can the j 
Eepublic stand this unespected calamity? Can our popular instita 
tions bear this new trial? The anguish remained, and still remains 



6 OUR NATIONAL AND TINANCIAL FUTURE. 

but the apprehension existed but for a moment. Scarcely had the 
announcement been made that Lincoln had fallen, before it was 
followed by the report that the Vice President had taken the oath of 
President, and that the functions of Government were being per- 
formed as regularly and quietly as though nothing had happened. 

And what followed ? The body of the beloved President was taken 
from Washington to lUinois through crowded cities,, among a grief- 
stricken and deeply excited-people, mourning as no people ever 
mourned, and moved as no people were ever moved; and yet there I 
was no popular violence, no outbreak of popular passion; borne a 
thousand miles to its last resting place, hundreds of thousand doing \ 
such honor to the remains as were never paid to those of king or I 
conqueror, and the public peace, notwithstanding intense indignation \ 
was mixed with intense sorrow, was in no instance disturbed. Here- I 
after there will be no skepticism among us in regard to the wisdom, 
the excellence, and the power of republican institutions. There is 
no country upon earth that could have passed through the trials to 
which the United States have been subjected during the past four 
years without being broken into fragments. 

Of Mr. Lincoln this is not a fitting occasion for me to speak freely. 
This much, however, I maybe permitted to say, that the more I saw 
of him the higher became my admiration of his ability and his char- 
acter. Before I went to Washington, and for a short period after, 
I doubted both his nerve and his statesmanship; but a closer obser- 
vation relieved me of these doubts, and before his death I had come 
to the conclusion that he was a man of will, of energy, of well- 
balanced mind, and wonderful sagacity. His practice of story-telling 
when the Government seemed to be in imminent peril, and the 
sublimest events were transpiring, surprised, if it did not sometimes 
disgust, those who did not know him well; but it indicated on his part 
no want of a proper appreciation of the terrible responsibility which 
rested upon him as the Chief Magistrate of a great nation engaged 
m the suppression of a desperate rebellion which threatened its over- 
throw. Story-telling with him was something more than a habit. 
He Avas so accustomed to it in social life and in the practice of his 




OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL PUTURE. 

profession, that it bceumo ii part of his nature, and so accurate Avas 
his recollection, and so great a fund had he at command, that he had 
always anecdotes and stories to illustrate his arguments and delight 
those whose tastes were similar to his own; but those who judged 
from this trait that he lacked deep feeling or sound judgment, or a 
proper sense of the responsibility of his position, had no just appre- 
ciation of his character. lie possessed all these qualities in an emi- 
nent degree. It was true of him, as it is true of all really noble and 
good men, that those who knew him best had the highest admiration 
of him. lie was not a man of genius, but he possessed in a largo 
degree, what is far more valuable in a public man, excellent common 
sense. He did not undertake to direct public opinion, but no man 
understood better the leadings of the popular will, or the beatings of 
the popular heart. He did not seem to gain this knowledge from 
reading or from observation, for he read very few of our public jour- 
nals, and was little inclined to call out the opinions of others. He 
was a representative of the people, and ho understood what the 
people desired rather by a study of himself than of them. Granting 
that although constitutionally honest himself, he did not put a very 
high valuation upon honesty in others, and that he sometimes per- 
mitted his partiality for his friends to influence his action in a man- 
ner that was hardly consistent with an upright administration ot his 
great ofiice, few men have held high position whose conduct would so 
well bear the severest criticism as Mr. Lincoln's. But I shall not 
undertake his eulogy. The people have already passed judgment in 
favor of the nobleness and uprightness of his character and the 
wisdom of his Administration, and the pen of impartial history will 
confirm the judgment. 

But you will expect, perhaps, that I say something of his (Mr. 
Lincoln's) successor. In any other place, and under any other 
circumstances, I should not feel at liberty to make any particular 
allusion to the President of th& United States, holding, as I do, 
a seat in his Cabinet. But knowing that many of you, my towns- 
men and neighbors, have been of the opinion that the settle- 
ment of the great questions wdiich would necessarily come up for set- 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

tloment at the close of the war would require on the part of the Chief 
Magistrate a profounder wisdom and a broader statesmanship than 
were required during its continuance, and that not a few have been 
deeply anxious lest Mr, Johnson might be nneqnal to the prodigious 
work that has been devolved npon him, I feel constrained to say that 
there is, in my judgment, no ground for apprehension on this subject. ^ 
Trying and difficult as is his situation, Mr. Johnson is master of it. ( 
He possesses, in an eminent degree, the qualities that fit him for the \ 
Presidency at tho present time. A Southern man, thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the effects of slavery upon society, he knows how to 
deal with Southern men in their present circumstances. Ardently \ 
attached to Tennessee, the love which ho bears to his State is entirely < 
subordinate to that which ho bears to the Union. Jealous of State \ 
rights, he is equally jealous of the rights of the General Government. \ 
A radical and uncompromising opponent of nullification, secession, 
and ever}^ form of disloyalty, he is equally opposed to any measures 
which, in his judgment, are calculated, by depriving the States of 
their just rights under the Constitution, to convert tl\e Federal Gov- 
ernment into a despotism. Eaised in slave States, and until recently 
a slaveholder, he has never had any love for slavery, and has always 
been the antagonist of the aristocracy that was based upon it. By 
nature and by education he is just the man for the great work of re- i 
establishing the Federal authority over the recently rebellious States; j 
and he has taken hold of this work with a devotion, an energy, and 
a prudence that promise the best results. ] 

He is a man, also, of excellent judgment and great singleness of | 
purpose. Honest himself, he expects honesty in others. Although 
long in public life, and a leading politician of his own school, he is ; 
in no sense a partisan. Unassuming in manners, he is yet self-pos- I 
sessed and dignified. He listens to the advice of those in whose 
judgment ho has confidence, but acts upon his OAvn convictions, and ^ 
generally according to his first impressions. With great decision of \ 
character, he is never hasty in action. Stern and unj-ielding in his \ 
adherence to principle and duty, he is a man of kindly and gentle | 
emotions. Having by his own indomitable energy fought his wa}^ 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 9 

up from a low to a high estate, he is in hearty sympathy with those \ 
who are treading the same upward path. He is, in a word, a clear- \ 
headed, upright, energetic, self-relying statesman; a dignified, cour- ^ 
teous, and kind-hearted gentleman. His administration will be char- 
acterized by all the force and energy and independence of Jackson's, 
with very little of its partizan character. - 

Under his direction the ffreat work of re-ostablishina" civil e-overu- 
ment at the South under the Federal Constitution is going rapidly 
forward — too rapidly, it seems, according to the opinion of many at 
the North whose opinions are entitled to great consideration. I 
know, sir, that many doubt the wisdom of Mr. Johnson's policy; 
that many are of the opinion that by their ordinance of secession the 
rebellious States had ceased to be States under the Constitution, and 
that nothing should be done by the Executive in aid of the restora- 
tion of their State governments until Congress had determined on 
what terms they should be restored to the Union which they had 
voluntarily abandoned and attempted to destroy; that as the people 
of these States had appealed to the sword and been subjugated by 
the sword, they should be governed by the sword until the law- 
making power had disposed of the subject of reconstruction; that 
no State that had passed ordinances of secession and united with the 
so-called Confederate Government should ever be admitted again 
into the Union unless in its preliminary proceedings all men, irre- 
spective of color, should be permitted to vote, nor without provisions 
in its Constitution for the absolute enfranchisement of the negro. 
Some go even further than this, and demand the confiscation of the 
property of all rebels and the application of the proceeds to the pay- 
ment of the national debt. 

These are not, I apprehend, the views of a respectable minority. 
I know that they are not the views of a majority of the people of 
the North. The better opinion is, that the States which attempted 
to secede never ceased to be States in the Union ; that all then' acts 
of secession were of no efiect ; that during the progress of the revolt 
the exercise of the Federal authority was merely suspended, and 
that there never was a moment when the allegiance of the people of 



\ 10 OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

i the insiiiTectionaiy States was not due to the Government, and when 
\ the Government was not bound to maintain its authority over them 
s and extend protection to those who required it. When the rebellion 
was overcome, the so-called Confederate Government and all State 
governments which had been formed in opposition to the Federal 
Government ceased to have even a nominal existence, and the people 
who had been subject to them were left, for the time being, without 
any government whatever. The term of office of the Federal offi- 
cers had expired or the offices had become vacant by the treason of 
those who held them. There were no Federal revenue officers, no 
competent Federal judges, and no organized Federal courts. JSTor 
w^ere the people any better off so far as State authority was regarded. 
When the Confederacy cohapsed, all the rebel State governments 
collapsed with it, so that, with a few exceptions, there Avere no persons 
holding civil office at the South by the authority of any legitimate 
government. 

I^ow, as government is at all times a necessity among men, and as 
it was especially so at the South, where violence and lawlessness had 
full swa}', the question to be decided by the President was simply 
this : Shall the j)eople of the recently rebellious States be held under 
military rule until Congress shall act upon the question, or shall 
immediate measures be taken by the Executive to restore to them 
civil governments ? 

After mature consideration, the President concluded it to be his 
duty to adopt the latter course, and I am satisfied that in doing so he 
has acted wisely. 

Military rule will not be endured by the people of the United States 
one moment longer than there is an absolute necessity for it. Such 
an army as would have been requisite for the government of the 
people of the South, as a subjugated people, until Congress might 
prescribe the terms on which they could bo restored to the Union, 
Avould have been too severe a strain upon our republican institutions, 
and too expensive for the present condition of the Treasury. The 
President has therefore gone to work to restore the Union by the 
use, from the necessity of the case, of a portion of those who have 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL PUTURE. 11 

been recently in jirms to overthrow it. 'r]\o cxiu'rinH'iit nia\' lie 
regarded as a dangerous one, but it Avill be ])r(»v<'(l, L apiirrlicml, to 
have been a judicious one. Never were a peoj)le so disgusted with the 
work of their own hands as- Avere the great mass of the peo])le of the 
South (even before the collapse of the rebellion ) with the (Jovernment 
Avhich was attempted to be set xi]> by tlie oviTthrow of the (^Jovern- 
ment of their forefathers. Never Avcre a people so completely subju- 
gated as the people of the rebel States. I have met a great many of 
those whom the President is using in his restoration policy, and they 
have impressed me most favorabl}'. I Itelievc them to lie honest in 
I taking the amnesty oath, and in their pledges of fidelity to the Con- 
stitution and the Union. Slavery has perished — this all acknowl- \ 
\ edge — and with it has gojie down the doctrine of secession. State \ 
\ sovereignty has been discussed in Congress, before Courts, in the \ 
] public journals, and among the people, and at last, '-when madness < 
< ruled the hour," this vexed question was submitted to the final ai'- s 
'l bitrament of the sword. The question, as all admit, has bsen fairly \ 
\ and definitely decided, and from this decision of the sAvord there Avill ^ 
\ no appeal. It is undoubtedly true that the men of the South feel \ 
s sore at the result, but they accept the situation, and are preparing \ 

!; for the changes Avhich the war has produced in their domestic insti- < 

I ' 

i tutions with an alacrity and an exhibition of good feeling which has, • 

^ I confess, surprised as it has gratified me. > 

5 In the work of restoration the President has aimed to do only that ] 

\ . . . " . '' 

I Avhich Avas necessary to be done, exercising only that poAVer Avhich ^ 

f^ could be properly exercised under the Constitution. Avhich guarantees 

> to every State a republican form of govei-nment. Regarding slavery- ^ 

5 as having perished in the rebellious States, either Ijy the proclamation < 

\ of his predecessor or by the result of the Avar, and determining that \ 

I no rebel Avho had not purged himself of his treason shoidd have any 

part in the restoration of the civil governments Avhich he is aiding to 

establish, he has not considered it Avithin the scope of his authority 

to go further, and enfranchise the negro. For this he is censured by 

many true men at the North and a fcAV extreme men at the South, 



12 OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

but I have no doubt that he will be sustained by the people, and that 
the result will vindicate the wisdom of his course. 

But, while the President is inclined to treat with kindness, and to 
trust those who, under mistaken notions in regard to the character 
of the Government, joined in the reltellion, but not until (after a 
struggle on their part to prevent k) the States to which they 
belonged had passed ordinances of secession, and the United States 
was unable to extend to them that protection to which they were 
entitled, there is no man Avho holds in greater abhorrence than he 
does the crime of treason, or the infamous scoundrels who system- 
atically and deliberately starved and poisoned our soldiers in prison. 
To the plotters of the rebellion there will be, I apprehend, no hasty 
pardons; to the murderers of our gallant soldiers no mercy. 

And now a word in regard to our finances. 

You know that I did not seek, as I did not expect, to be Secretary 
of the Treasury. To this fact I attribute in a great degree the good 
feeling and indulgence that have been manifested towards me in the 
very trying and responsible position I occupy. I accepted the office 
of Secretary of the Treasury Avith great distrust of my ability to 
meet the public expectation, but with a sincere desire to so conduct 
the affairs of this great dej)artment as to aid in restoring the credit 
of the Government, which had been damaged by the greatness of the 
public debt and the uncertainty in regard to the duration, if not to 
the result of the war, and in bringing up the obligations of the Gov- 
ernment to the specie standard. 

I am not one of those who seem disposed to repudiate coin as a 
measure of value, and to make a secured paper currency the standard. 
On the contrary, I belong to that class of jjersons, who, regarding an 
exclusive metallic currency as an impracticable thing among an enter- 
prising and commercial people, nevertheless look upon an irredeem- 
able currency as an evil v/hich circumstances may for a time render 
a necessity, but which is never to be sustained as a ]5olicy. By com- 
mon consent of the nations, gold and silver are the only true measure 
of value. They are the necessary regulators of trade. I have myself 
no more doubt that these metals were prepared by the Almighty for 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL PUTUllE. 13 

this very purpose, than I have that iron and coal were prepared for 
for the purposes in which they are being used. I favor a well-secured 
convertible paper currency — no other can to any extent be a proper 
substitute for coin. Of course, it is not exjDCcted that there shall be 
a dollar in coin in reserve for every dollar of paj)er in circulation. 
This is not necessary. For all ordinary home transactions a paper 
currency is sufficient; but there are constantly occurring periods 
when balances between countries, and in the United States between 
its different sections, must be settled by coiu. These balances are 
insignificant in amount, in comparison with the transactions out of 
which they arise, and when a vicious system of credits does not too 
long postpone settlements, they are arranged without disturbing 
movements of coin. Whenever specie is needed for such a purpose, \ 
or for any other purpose, the paper currency of the country should < 
be convertible into it, and a circulation which is not so convertible j 
will not be, and ought not to be, long tolerated by the people. The \ 
present inconvertible currency of the United States was a necessity I 
of the war; but now that the war has ceased, and the Grovernment ^ 
ought not to be longer a borrower, this currency should be brought ^ 
up to the specie standard, and I see no way of doing this but b}^ j: 
withdrawing a portion of it from circulation. |: 

I have no faith, sir, in a prosperity which is the effect of a deprc- < 
ciated currenc}^, nor can I see any safe path for us to tread but that s 
which leads to specie payment. The extreme high prices which now j 
prevail in the United States are an unerring indication that the busi- \ 
ness of the country is in an unhealthy condition. We are measuring \ 
values by a false standard. We have a circulating medium altogether j 
larger than is needed for legitimate business; the excess is used in s 
speculations. The United States are to-day the best market in the | 
world for foreigners to sell in, and among the poorest to buy in. ; 
The consequence is that Europe is selling us more than she biiys of j 
us, (including our securities, which ought not to go abroad,) and s 
there is a debt rolling up against us that must be settled in part at | 
least with coin. The longer the inflation continues the more difficult ^ 
will it bo for us to get back to the solid ground of specie paj^ments, 



I 14 OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 



s 



to which we must return sooner or later. If Congress shall early in 
the approaching session authorize the funding of legal-tenders, and 
the work of reduction is commenced and carried on resolutely, but 
carefully and prudently, we shall reach it probably without serious 
embarrassment to legitimate business; if not, we shall have a brief 
period of hollow and seductive prosperitj^, resulting in wide-spread 
bankruptcy and disaster. 

There are other objections to the present inflation. It is, I fear, 
corrupting the public morals. It is converting the business of the 
country into gambling, and seriously diminishing the labor of the 
country. This is always the eflect of excessive circulation. The 
kind of gambling which it produces is not confined to the stock and 
produce board§, where the very terms which arc used by the oper- 
ators indicate the nature of the transactions, but it is spreadiug 
through our towns and hito the rural districts. Men are apparently 
getting rich, Avhile morality languishes and the productive industry of 
the country is being diminislied. Good morals in business, and sober, 
persevering industry, if not at a discount, are considered too old 
fogyish for the present times. But I feel that this is not the occasion 
for croaking, and perhaps I ought to apologize for the train of 
remarks into which I have been led. 

Whatever financial troubles may be Ijcforo us. Fort "VVaync will 
suffer as little from them as any other city in the countr}'. Good 
financial seed v/as sown here at an early day. If property is high, 
there are no encumbrances upon it. If expensive buildings are 
being erected, the owners are not indebted for them. Business is 
done here on the cash principle. Our merchants generally buy for 
cash, and sell for cash. We shall doubtless wake up some fine morn- 
ing and find our property worth apparently a good deal less than at 
present, but if we have no debts to pay in a dearer currency than 
that in Avhich they Avere contracted, wc shall have little to fear from 
any crisis that may occur. 

But, while I feel anxious about the present inflation, and its effects 
upon the business and morals of the country, I am hopeful that, by 
wise legislation, avc shall escape a financial collapse, and I am confi- 



OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

deut that a grand future is before the United States. I am IiuikIuI 
that the currency may be brought up to the specie standard Avithout 
those financial troubles which have in all countries followed pro- 
tracted and expensive wars. By the experiences of the past four 
years, we are led to the conclusion that our people have a latent 
power that always manifests itself when required, and is e(pud to 
any emergency. I have faith, sir, that as we have, to the astonish- 
ment of the world, raised immense armies, larger I apprehend than 
any single nation ever brought into the field, and met the enormous 
expenses of the war without borrowing from other nations; we shall 
also be able without a financial crisis to fund our surplus currency 
and interest-bearing notes, bring back the business to a specie stand- 
ard, and place the credit of the country on the most stable and satis- 
factory basis. If we do this, we shall accomplish what the soundest 

s thinkers in Europe have considered an impossibilit}', and what no 

\ other people but the free and enterprising people of the United 

\ States, occupying the grandest country in the world, could accom- 

\ plish. 

5 Eut should we be disappointed in these hopeful expectations; 

s should no early check be put upon the issues of paper money; 

\ should prices still further advance and speculation be still further 

\ stimulated, and the result thereof be extensive bankruptcy, depres- 

\ sion, and hard times, the grand destiny of this country and this 

I Government will not be affected. 

The United States occupy the l)est portion of the temperate zone 

•/ of a continent, stretching out their arms to Europe on the one side, 
and Asia on the other, and producing all articles necessary for the 

,, subsistence and comfort of the race. If cotton be king, he is, thank 
God, enthroned again in the United States; if bread be king, where | 

J should his capital be but in this great valley of the Mississippi? This j 
nation has within itself everything that is needed to make it the i 
greatest among the family of nations. Coal and iron in juxtaposi- | 
tion and inexhaustible supply. Mountains and valleys rich enough in j 
o-old and silver to furnish the world, for all time, Avith what may be \ 

needed for circulation and other uses. Copper and lead and other \ 

\ 



16 OUR NATIONAL AND FINANCIAL FUTURE. 

minerals in no less abundance. A soil of wonderful fertility, a cli- 
mate salubrious and diversified, and, above all, republican institutions, 
and an energetic and again united people. 

We have, it is true, sii', diflficult questions growing out of the war, 
yet to be settled, but I have an abiding confidence that they will be 
settled as they come up for settlement, in such manner as will 
strengthen the Union, and add to our national renown. The labor 
question at the South is one of those questions, but if there be no j 
outside interference, it will not, I apprehend, be a very difficult one; I 
on the contrary, it is quite likely to be a self-adjusting one. The ^ 
planter wants the labor of his former slaves, and the high price s 
which Southern products will command for years to come will enable < 
him to pay liberally for it. The colored people will soon learn that > 
freedom from slavery does not mean freedom from work. The \ 
interests of the two races will not long be antagonistic. The whites I 
will need the labor of the blacks and the blacks will need employ- \ 
ment. There is as much danger to be apprehended from the unwil- 
lingness of the latter to labor for a support as from an indisposition 
on the part of the former to pay fair wages. Like all other econom- 
ical questions, it will be settled by the necessities and interests of the 
parties. 

Fortunately for the solution of this question, and the well-being of 
laboring men generally, capital is not supreme in the United States. 
It does not, as in most other countries, hold labor under its control, 
and dole out to it only such remuneration as will make it most pro- 
ductive. Labor is a power in this free country, with its cheap lands 
which are within the reach of all industrious men, and dictates terms 
to capital. There is no part of the world where labor is more needed 
than in the Southern States, nor where it will soon command better 
prices. This labor question at the South will, I doubt not, be satis- 
factorily arranged in due time for the best interest of all concerned. 

But I have trespassed too long upon your time. Accept, again, 
my thanks for your courtesy, and for the attention you have given 
to my desultory remarks. 




